Adjustable hinge for doors, covers and the like



Oct. 7, 1958 R. B. BALDAUF 2,854,637

ADJUSTABLE HINGE FOR DOORS, COVERS AND THE LIKE Filed D60. 15, 1954. I

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 III I T INVENTOR T v REGINALD B. BALDAUF.

M0. ATTo EY Oct. 7, 1958 R. BJBALDAUF 2,354,687

ADJUSTABLE HINGE FOR DOORS, COVERS AND THE LIKE Filecl Dec. 15; 1964 H 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR REGINALD B. BALDAUF.

ATTORNEY United States Patent C) ADJUSTABLE HINGE FOR DOORS, COVERS AND THE LIKE Reginald Bernard Baldauf, Valley Stream, N. Y.

Application December 15, 1954, Serial No. 475,4?1

1 Claim. (Cl. 16130) This invention relates to an adjustable hinge for doors, covers and the like.

The invention is particularly applicable to stratosphere test chambers, bathyspheres and the like but it is equally useful in more conventional installations, such as hatch covers, refrigerator doors and the like.

Referring specifically to stratosphere test chambers, by way of illustration, it will be understood that it is essential that the doors to such chambers provide strong air-tight seals with the chamber walls or frames in which they are mounted. These doors are of the hinged variety and they are provided with latches or locks along their free swinging or leading edges. These latches or locks are capable of drawing the doors tightly against the chamber walls or against gaskets which are interposed between said doors and said walls. But such latching or locking action takes place only along the leading edge of said doors and the problem of how a tight seal is to be effected along the hinged edge of the doors has not heretofore successfully been solved. It will be understood that a conventional hinge constitutes a limitation on relative movement, other than pivotal movement, between the doors and the chamber walls. More specifically, once a door to a stratosphere test chamber is swung to its closed position and latched at its leading edge to maintain such position, it is no longer possible to adjust its position relative to the chamber wall along the hinged edge of said door.

It is the principal object of this invention to provide a hinge which is adjustable relative to the door or wall on which'it is mounted so as to render it possible to adjust the position of the door relative to the wall along the hinged edge of said door, such adjustment being in addition to the pivotal adjustment or movement of which this hinge, as all other hinges, is capable. The adjustment feature of the hinge which is herein claimed may be automatic in the sense of being allowed to adjust itself to the conditions encountered, or it may be manually controlled in the sense that it may be manually actuated or set to a selected or predetermined position and then locked in such position to render the adjustment feature inoperative until further adjustment is required.

The adjustment feature herein claimed involves the use of three hinged plates instead of only the conventional two. For convenience, the third plate will herein be denoted the adjusting plate and the other two plates, which might be taken to correspond to the conventional plates of a conventional hinge will herein be designated as the hinge plates of the device. The two hinge plates are pivotally secured to each other in substantially conventional manner. One of these hinge plates is secured, in conventional manner, to a door (or door post). The other hinge plate is slidably secured to the adjusting plate and said adjusting plate is secured in conventional manner to the door post (or door). The latter hinge plate may be left free to slide or float relative to the adjusting plate or means may be provided for locking said last mentioned hinge plate to the adjusting plate to prevent relative movement between them. A set screw, for example, may be employed for this purpose. If desired, an adjusting screw may also be provided between the last mentioned hinge member and the adjusting plate to adjust their relative positions and the set screw may then be employed to lock them in their adjusted positions.

Another important feature involves the use of the adjusting screw. Instead of being used to adjust the relative positions of the second mentioned hinge plate and the adjusting plate, said adjusting screw may be used as a limiting-or stop screw to prevent relative movement of said last mentioned hinge plate and said adjusting plate beyond a predetermined or preselected point. In such case, of course, the second mentioned hinge plate would be left free to float or slide relative to the adjusting plate, save as the adjusting screw would limit such floating or sliding movement.

It will be understood that the same principle of adjustment may be provided in relation to both hinge plates. That is, each hinge plate may be slidably secured to an adjusting plate and it would be the adjusting plates themselves, rather than the hinge plates, which would be secured to the door and door post.

An important variation of the construction above described is shown in a modified form of the invention in which a shaft and a sleeve for said shaft are substituted for the relatively slidable plates above mentioned. One hinge member is relatively conventional in construction and it includes a hinge pin or pintle with plate means for mounting the same on a door or door post. A tubular member is mounted on said pin or pintle for angular movement about the axis of said pin or pintle and a shaft is connected to said tubular member at right angles thereto and to said axis. A sleeve is mounted on said shaft for angular movement about the axis of said shaft and plate means is provided to secure said sleeve to a door post or door as the case may be. In addition to being angularly movable about the shaft axis, said sleeve is also longitudinally movable relative to said shaft and it is this latter form of relative movement that corresponds to the relative slidable movement of the hinge plates in the form of invention first above described.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary view of a stratosphere test chamber, showing the chamber wall and chamber door and an adjustable hinge made in accordance with the present invention mounted on said chamber wall and chamber door.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to that of Fig. 1, but showing the adjustable parts of the hinge occupying different positions and with the door, consequently, also occupying a different position relative to the chamber wall.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view through the adjustable parts of the hinge.

Fig. 4 is another fragmentary view of the stratosphere test chamber, being a sectional view through thestratosphere chamber wall and door and the gasket between them, and a side or edge view of the hinge herein claimed.

Fig. 5 is a section through a typical stratosphere test chamber installation, showing how the chamber door may be supported on the chamber wall by means of the hinge herein claimed.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of an adjustable hinge ,inade in accordance with a second form of this invention.

Fig. 7 is a side view thereof.

Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section on the line 88 of Fig. 6. v i

Fig. 9 is a transverse section on the line 9-'-9 of Fig. 6.:

The stratosphere test chamber shown in the drawing is provided with a wall 12 and a door 14. Between the wall and the door is a gasket 16. A hinge 18, made in accordance With this invention, supports the door on the wall. There may, of course, be more than one such hinge supporting a single door, but hinge 18 shown in the drawing would be representative of all of them. Hinge 18 is provided with a hinge plate or leaf 20 and a second hinge plate or leaf 22, a pintle 24 pivotally connecting the two hinge plates, and an adjustment plate 26 which is slidably connected to the second hinge plate 22.

It will be observed that the first hinge plate 20 is secured by means of screws or bolts 28 to door 14. The second hinge plate 22 is an open plate, being U-shaped in plan view and having a pair of arms 22:: and 22b and a yoke 22c joining said arms. Arms 22a and 22b are spaced to receive the first hinge plate 20 between them and the pintle 24 extends through said arms 22a and 22b and through said first hinge plate 20.

It will be noted in Fig. 3 that dove-tail portions 30 are formed along the facing sides of arms 22a and 22b, extending longitudinally of said arms and in parallel relation to each other. Adjusting plate 26 is provided with dove-tail shaped grooves 32 which are adapted to receive the dove-tails 30 within them in slidable relation thereto. It is clear from the foregoing that adjusting plate 26 is mounted between arms 22a and 22b of the second hinge plate and that dove-tail portions 30 serve as tracks on which said adjusting plate 26 is adapted to slide longitudinally of itself, of said tracks and of arms 22a and 22b.

Adjusting plate 26 is secured to wall 12 by means of screws or bolts 34. This fixes the position of said adjusting plate relative to the chamber wall so that any relative movement between said adjusting plate and hinge plate 22 must involve movement of said hinge plate relative to said adjusting plate. It will be noted in Fig. 1 that hinge plate 22 occupies a position relative to adjusting plate 26 wherein the yoke 220 of said hinge plate abuts the end of said adjusting plate. In Fig. 2, the position of hinge plate 22 has shifted leftwardly so that its yoke is now in spaced relation to the adjusting plate. This means that the door 14 has shifted in the direction of wall 12 and this may be seen by comparing the thickness of the gasket between the door and the wall in Figs. 1 and 2. In Fig. 2 the gasket is compressed between the door and the wall but in Fig. 1 it is not. This shifting of the door relative to the wall may take place upon evacuation of the stratosphere test chamber, the pressure of the atmosphere upon the outside of the door forcing it inwardly to compress the gasket and thereby to provide a tight seal between the door and the chamber wall.

It will be observed that an adjusting screw 36 is provided in yoke 220 of hinge plate 22. This adjusting screw is longitudinally adjustable for engagement with adjusting plate 26. Two positions of said adjusting screw are shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and in both cases the adjusting screw is shown in engagement with the adjusting plate.

A set screw 38 may also be provided in either or both of the arms of hinge plate 22. In Fig. 1 of the drawing, only one such set screw is shown, this one being screwed into arm 22b of binge plate 22. It will be noted particularly in Fig. 3 that this set screw is engageable with the flat side of adjusting plate 26 so as to lock said adjusting plate and hinge plate 22 together in any selected or predetermined positions relative to each other.

In Figs. 6 to 9 inclusive an adjustable hinge is shown which, in principle, corresponds to the hinge last above described but it involves a somewhat different construction and it incorporates additional features. It comprises a hinge plate 100, a pair of tubular bearings 102 and 104 on said hinge plate, a pin or pintle 106 supported by said tubular bearings for angular movement about its own longitudinal axis, a tubular member 108 mounted on said pin or pintle between said bearings 102 and 104, a set screw in said tubular member 108 which engages the pin or pintle to prevent relative movement between said tubular member 108 and said pin or pintle, a shaft 112 which is connected at one end to said tubular member 108, either integrally therewith or secured thereto, a sleeve 114 mounted on said shaft for angular and longitudinal movement thereon and relative thereto, and a plate 116 on which said sleeve 114 is mounted, either integrally therewith or secured thereto.

Hinge plate 100 is provided with a plurality of holes 118 through which screws or other fastening members may be inserted in order to secure said plate to a door or a door post or the like. Similarly, plate 116 is provided with a plurality of holes 120 for screws or other fastening members by which said plate may be secured to a door post or door or the like. Sleeve 114 and shaft 112 are situated with their common axis perpendicular to the axis of pin or pintle 106 and it appears, therefore, that any relative movement of the door and door post to which plates 100 and 116 are fastened, either toward or away from each other, will be reflected in relative axial movement between said sleeve 114 and said shaft 112 irrespective of the angular position of said door relative to said post.

An important aspect of the present form of the invention, not found in the first form of the invention above described, is the adjustability of sleeve 114 and plate 116 angularly of shaft 112 and hence angularly of tubular member 108 to which said shaft is attached, pin or pintle 106, bearings 102 and 104 and plate 100. This form of adjustment is in addition to the longitudinal adjustment of sleeve 114 relative to shaft 112 which corresponds to the longitudinal adjustment of the hinge first above described. It will also be noted that an adjusting screw 122 is provided in a tapped hole 124 formed in shaft 112, axially thereof. This screw has a head 126 and a washer 128 adapted to abut said head. The washer, supported by the head of the screw, is engageable with the end of sleeve 114 as the interrupted lines in Fig. 6 clearly show. Screw 122 would correspond functionally to adjusting screw 36 in the first form of this invention. It will also be noted that an annular shoulder 130 is formed on shaft or rod 112 a short distance from tubular member 108. This shoulder 130 serves as an abutment relative to sleeve 114 and it limits longitudinal movement of said sleeve, together with hinge plate 116 connected thereto, in the direction of pintle 106. The head 126 of adjusting screw 122, together with washer 128, serves to limit longitudinal movement of said sleeve 114 in the direction away from pintle 106.

The foregoing is illustrative of a preferred form of this invention and it will be understood that this preferred form may be modified and other forms may be provided within the broad spirit of the invention and the broad scope of the claim.

I claim:

An adjustable hinge of the character described, comprising a first hinge plate having a pair of spaced bearing sleeves secured thereto in alignment with each other, a pintle supported by said bearing sleeves, a third sleeve mounted on said pintle between the first mentioned sleeves, a set screw securing said third sleeve to said pintle to prevent relative movement between them, said pintle being free to turn about its longitudinal axis within and relative to said pair of bearing sleeves, a rod connected at one end to said third sleeve, centrally of said third sleeve and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said third sleeve, a fourth sleeve mounted on said rod and being free to move longitudinally of said rod and also angularly thereof, a second hinge plate connected to said fourth sleeve, said second hinge plate being thereby adapted to move toward and away from said pintle along said rod and also to swivel about said rod, a shoulder S 6 formed on said rod adjacent the third sleeve to serve as References Cited in the file of this patent an abutment relative to the fourth sleeve and to limit UNITED STATES PATENTS longitudinal movement of said fourth sleeve, together with said second hinge plate, in the direction of the pintle, g f i ""7 :3 1; and a limiting screw adjustably secured to the free end 5 994196 d 5 1911 of said rod, longitudinally thereof, the head of said screw 1 U 6'148 S e d Nov 1914 serving as a stop member relative to said fourth sleeve ar He 1939' to prevent longitudinal movement of said fourth sleeve i g 1945 away from said pintle beyond a set point, said fourth 2683279 23 g g 1954 S eev together with the second hinge plate mounted 10 2,700,790 Johnson Feb 1 1955 thereon, being free to move longitudinally of the rod between said shoulder and the head of said screw. 

